Hope from the Past
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Eons ago, in a time before time, when human beings lived like gods, they created a species that became their undoing. To save their world, they created a being that would eradicate them no matter where they were, but were too late to save themselves. Now, years after a calamity, the ancient enemy has returned...along with some new ones.
1. Hope from the Past

Creation began on 01-24-19

Creation ended on 01-25-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past

A/N: My attempt at crossing over _Evangelion_ with _Gamera_. I guess I'll try with beginning with the eighth episode of the anime and see where it goes from there. Here goes.

It had been asleep for many years, born in a time where mortals were god-like and had technology far more advanced than anything in existence today. As it awoke from its ancient slumber, as if sensing a presence similar to the enemy made long before itself was, it felt something was off with the world as it existed today. There was more water than usual…and much of the land was submerged in it. Buildings, roads, vehicles and the like were all surrounded by aquatic lifeforms. Looking up, it could see something that…didn't belong, swimming around and destroying some ships.

If it didn't do something, the humans aboard those remaining, seafaring vessels would be lost to the abyss.

"Grrr," it growled.

-x-

Asuka Langley Soryu, the Second Child and pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, was dragging Shinji Ikari, the Third Child and pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 across the carrier ferrying the red Eva to Japan when word of the Angel's presence was made known. She wanted to show him that she was the best pilot out of every child chosen by NERV, and to do that, she needed him with her at all times.

SPLASH! The ship heaved and hoed as something large made the water shift around outside.

"What's going on?!" Shinji questioned.

"It's an Angel," Asuka told him. "That's all that matters!"

If only either knew, that was far from the truth.

Gaghiel, the Angel of Fish…was currently engaging some sort of…thing that looked as though it were made of the debris these Lilim created when they maimed their world. It kept bringing up its AT-Field, but the thing kept managing to get past it and inflict grievous wounds that kept getting it closer to its core. Whatever this thing was, it was demonstrating an unusual ability to bypass its defensive barrier, as though it were designed to do so.

"What the Hell is that thing?!" Toji Suzuhara asked, pointing to the…whatever it was that was attacking the Angel. "It looks like a giant Frisbee made of old buildings!"

"It looks more like a dome or mountain," went Kensuke, trying to film as much of this as possible. "It's amazing!"

The next thing any of them knew, a burst of ocean water shot out into the air, raining all over the ships and people, along with minor bits of debris, and the Angel itself had been reduced to bits. There was no sign of whatever it was that attacked it.

"It defeated the Angel?" Misato questioned, confused at how something else could've fought and defeated the Angel and do so faster than an Eva could.

"What happened to the Angel?!" Asuka yelled as she dragged Shinji over to the tactical commander, angry over missing her chance to show her superiority.

"Something…defeated it," Misato stated simply; she didn't know what it was.

Everything happened so fast, nobody could comprehend it fully.

"Shiest!"

Shinji didn't complain; whatever did the job spared him the pain of having to pilot.

Bling! Something on the deck shined nearby and got his eyes' attention.

Looking down, he saw that it was shaped like a magatama, only slightly dirty and a brownish color. But what intrigued Shinji was that it looked…almost as though it just needed to be cleaned a little and it would be shining like new, so he picked it up before anyone else noticed and tucked it into his pants' left pocket.

"I told you that transporting that toy of yours was a waste of our time!" The naval captain told Misato, angry over the damage and destruction that was caused to as much of his fleet because of the Angel.

-x-

Whatever that creature was, more were sure to come, and with them would come his true enemy that he failed to defeat in the past…but couldn't fail in the present because too much was at stake. Chosen to be the planet's eternal protector from among dozens of his brethren, he was the sole survivor, a living relic burdened with a responsibility his creators failed to do because it had been too late for them, but he could fix the mistake they made and preserve the world. So long as he survived, he would show why and how he came be…and would again come to be known by his creators…as the Guardian of the Earth and the Guardian of the Universe.

But first he needed to rest; taking out the Angel had left him depleted of most of the energy he was storing through the ages of sleep and hibernation.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the first chapter of the crossover. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but the poll that will decide what happens to one of the characters will be the primary part of it. Until the poll gets interests, peace out.


	2. Mystery

Creation began on 01-25-19

Creation ended on 02-03-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past: Mystery

There weren't enough details to ascertain what the mysterious thing that attacked and defeated the Sixth Angel at sea. Not even the footage that had been confiscated from Kensuke Aida could tell NERV anything, and because the footage was useless, they had to give it back to the boy. As important as it was to find out what this thing was, nobody seemed too concerned about it to consider the possibility of it returning.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, sir," a woman called out to the elder as he walked down the hall in NERV HQ, "there's a call for you from a Hiroko Shinjo!"

"Hiroko?" Fuyutsuki responded, curious as to why she would be calling him.

The NERV employee handed him a cordless phone and walked away, allowing him privacy to take the call.

"Hello, this is Kozo Fuyutsuki," he uttered, but then his eyes widened. "What?"

"Help, please," the woman on the other end cried, giving him the location of where she was before the call ended abruptly.

Fuyutsuki didn't have many friends that still had their careers to this very day that were still alive, but Hiroko was like a sister to him; she once saved his career prior to Second Impact and he owed her a favor. But what confused him about her call was what she said.

It was something about a…a bird, bat or dragon.

-x-

"…What's that you got there, Shinji?" Toji asked as Shinji was looking at the magatama he found during gym time at school.

"Nothing," he answered as he put it back in his pocket, "just a trinket."

"What do you suppose that thing was?" Kensuke asked them as they sat on the benches after running for five minutes. "I kept looking at the footage, but all I see is water and debris."

"I don't know what that thing was," Shinji expressed, "but if it was able to defeat an Angel, then it must've been powerful."

"Stronger than even an Eva, Shinji?" Toji suggested.

"Maybe… I mean, it just took out an Angel in less than five minutes. An Evangelion would've taken longer."

Both boys realized that Shinji was right; an Evangelion, due to being dependent upon external power and a cable or batteries to supply it, would've been hindered by such a hindrance. Whatever that thing was, it didn't exhibit any such limitations.

"Better to talk about this thing…than to talk about her," Toji expressed his opinion, pointing up to the school pool where the girls were, referring to Asuka, who was transferred to the school.

-x-

"…Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki left?" Misato asked Ritsuko.

"Yes, and in quite a hurry," the faux-blond answered her. "It was probably nothing, but he said he'd be back in two days. The island he was going to is far out."

-x-

Kiganjima Island, initially an uninhabited patch of land in the Pacific Ocean that managed to survive Second Impact, with a small village to symbolize how people could reclaim land that was almost taken.

At least…that was what used to be the case before Fuyutsuki arrived to where his friend had been found.

Hiroko Shinjo, her brown hair showing signs of gray, wrapped in a large blanket, looked as though she had seen horrors no other woman had ever laid eyes on before. When the naval police found her after responding to a distress signal from the village, they found her hiding in a nearby cave, probably having taken shelter in it during the storm that recently occurred, hysterical. But she was calm now, so she could be approached about what happened to the village.

"Hiroko?" Fuyutsuki uttered to her, getting her attention. "What happened here?"

"I…I…I was here for research," she responded, stuttering from the effects of whatever affected her. "The storm hit…and everyone got taken. I…I ran to the cave… They tried to get in… They took the little girl I tried to protect. They're still out there…and they'll be back."

"Hiroko…what do you mean, they'll be back? Who's 'they'?"

"Birds…no, bats…or maybe they're dragons. They ravaged the village."

 _Whatever she saw terrified her beyond rationality,_ he realized, turning to look at the remains of the island village.

The small houses and shops, even the small well that had served as the villagers' reservoir…had all been destroyed by…something.

"Tell me, officer, just how many people lived on this island?" Fuyutsuki asked the police.

"Uh, twenty-seven families," one of the officers answered him, holding out a pair of handcuffs. "Uh, less than seventy people."

"Wait a minute… You don't actually think that she had something to do with this, do you?"

"Sir, she's hysterical. We don't know if she did anything or not."

"She's three years younger than I am with an advanced degree in ornithology. There's no way she would do something as crazy and ridiculous as attack a bunch of people she doesn't even know. Even if she did do this, where are the bodies? What would be her reason?"

"Sir, we heard her call to you, and she wasn't making any sense. There's no way that a…bird or bat could do something like this, and dragons are just a fairytale."

But Fuyutsuki wasn't convinced yet. He had to look around the village, find something that was overlooked or ignored by the police.

Within half an hour, despite assessing the devastation with the police, Fuyutsuki couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. The storm could've caused some of the damage, but not all of it, and not a single villager had yet to be found. But he couldn't believe that his friend had anything to do with this horrid abomination just yet.

"I'm sorry, sir," one of the police told him, about to arrest Hiroko, "but the only thing capable of causing destruction of this sort is another person."

"Hiroko wouldn't do something like this," he still declared. "Not in this lifetime…not ever."

"What the Hell is that?" Another officer went, pointing towards something in the wreckage of a small house.

Fuyutsuki looked over…and believed that Hiroko had been exonerated of any foul play now.

It was…some sort of large, whitish-gray muck with insects crawling on it.

"It looks like…a bird pellet," he told the police, putting on a pair of elbow-length gloves to examine the object.

"A what?" One of them questioned.

"Undigested matter that's been either regurgitated, thrown up, or expelled rectally, out the back door," Fuyutsuki explained to them, feeling something inside it, "but this one's way too big."

Removing the object felt on, his eyes widened at the sight of what was in his right hand. It was…a teddy bear.

"Ahh…" He heard Hiroko's gasp, seeing her standing away with two other policemen, shuddering at the sight of the bear.

"That's the girl's bear," she told them, shedding tears. "They ate her."

Fuyutsuki looked down at the pellet again…and saw a necklace oozing out with someone's pocket watch.

"What the Hell is going on here?" He wondered.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, since I couldn't have Fuyutsuki become a victim, I circumvented my poll by having someone he knew become a victim. I'm sure many of you know what happened and what will happen later, right?


	3. Atoll Discovery

Creation began on 04-26-19

Creation ended on 05-13-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past: Atoll Discovery

Fuyutsuki returned to NERV HQ a few days later, but couldn't stay too long; after what he saw on that island, the police had asked him to assist in the investigation on what these creatures were that attacked the people living there.

"…They can't find anyone else to do this?" Gendo had asked while he was at the Geo-Front.

"Hiroko Shinjo is helping, but she's on medication for the time being, so I'm going in order to keep her in check," he explained. "Something she saw killed a lot of people that lived on that island. Whatever it was, it's still out there, and it'll be back."

"Unless it's an Angel, NERV has no authority over the case."

"I'd still go even if it wasn't an Angel. It reminds me that not everything revolves around the Evas or Angels."

That sounded almost like it was meant for Gendo to hear, like Fuyutsuki was hoping that it wasn't an Angel that had attacked the island.

Meanwhile, in the test plugs, Shinji, Rei and Asuka were undergoing synchronization testing for the umpteenth time. While the First Child's scores were minimal at best like most of the time, the Second Child's scores were higher than the Third Child's.

"Shinji, your synchronization's at seventy-four percent," Ritsuko informed them. "Asuka, yours is at eighty-three, and Rei's is at forty-nine percent."

"Once more, I'm the best," Asuka declares.

"Does it even matter?" Shinji questions her ego. "You haven't faced an Angel yet."

"And if that…whatever that thing was that was covered in debris hadn't shown up and took out that Angel, I would've taken it out myself, showing my skills as a superior pilot."

Suddenly, Shinji expressed, "I'm grateful to whatever that creature was that defeated the Angel. Even if it was just a one-time thing, we were in no condition to battle an Angel at sea. Whatever that thing was, it was able to fight in the water, implying that it was prepared for battle, regardless of its appearance. The Eva only had B-Type equipment, which isn't suited for combat at sea. How would you have dealt with an Angel that could move in water with an Eva that couldn't move an inch in water?"

"Oh, I would've found a way."

"And maybe by the time you did that, the Angel might've done away with everyone because people believed more in something with defects instead of something else that might've been better to believe in."

It almost sounded as though, to Ritsuko, at least, that Shinji was putting down the Eva in favor of this…this thing that defeated the Sixth Angel, whatever it was, even though it was only once. And it also sounded as though he was right to favor it.

"Why is that, Shinji?" She asked him.

-x-

"…So, how are you feeling today, Hiroko?" Fuyutsuki asked his old friend after she had taken her medication.

"A little better," she answered him as she looked out at the water. "I'll feel even better when we find this thing that killed those people."

Fuyutsuki looked down at a sketch she was working on, and found it to be very…repulsive; if this was what the creature she saw looked like, it was the stuff of nightmares.

"Is that the creature?" He asked her.

"Only its head," she answered him. "It was the only thing I could remember because it frightened me the most."

"It looks like a demonic dragon of sorts."

"It's still out there somewhere, watching, waiting, some sort of demon that can't seem to satiate its hunger for human flesh."

Suddenly, the alarms of the boat they were on with an investigative crew went off, alerting them to something from afar or nearby.

A man ran into the room they were in and told them to put on their lifejackets.

"What's going on?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"Some sort of atoll made of debris," he explained to them, "floating in the ocean, five miles ahead of us."

"An atoll? But there's no atolls anywhere in this ocean." Hiroko expressed; she had checked the Pacific Ocean parts of the map in excess and there weren't any other land masses around after Second Impact, including ones made of debris. "How big is it?"

"It's about ninety-five meters long and sixty-five meters wide."

"How can something like that be in the water?" Fuyutsuki wondered aloud.

"We'll find out as soon as we get to it."

-x-

Shinji had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen. It wasn't like he could see the future, but it felt like the air was thick with something foul. Even as he cleaned the metal bead he found to the best of his ability in the solitude of his room, he couldn't shake off the feeling of dread looming over his head.

 _What is this dreadful feeling that's affecting me?_ He wondered as he set the little cleaning rag down on his table, examining the bead for any more dirt or rust. _Why do I get the feeling that something out there is wrong?_

-x-

"…Is that the atoll?" Fuyutsuki asked the captain of the ship, pointing to the mass of debris in the water.

"Yeah," he answered. "It makes no sense, though. How can something like this be adrift like a weed when it's not connected to anything?"

"Did you check for any signs of radiation?" Hiroko asked the captain.

A man with his head facing a computer screen expressed, "Already did, and it's nonexistent. It won't be dangerous for anyone to investigate."

 _Investigate?_ Hiroko thought. _We're actually going to set foot on that thing? Wait a minute… Why does it look like I've seen that shape before?_

On the computer screen was the digital mapping of the atoll, and the woman could see that it resembled something she was certain she had seen a long time ago, but couldn't place where.

-x-

 _Where am I?_ Shinji thought as he found himself in a large city that wasn't Tokyo-3 or any other Japanese city he knew of, surrounded by various people that were walking around him, dressed in various clothing, ranging from skin-tight suits to flowing robes.

The buildings, streets, and very people themselves were all unlike the modern-day people Shinji had seen around Tokyo-3. They were full of prosperity, the streets were clean enough to eat off of, and from the looks of things, Shinji could've sworn he saw several cars flying around without tires.

 _It feels so peaceful here,_ he considered, despite the fact that he was seeing some street signs that were written in a language he couldn't understand.

"Meow," he looked down and thought he was looking at a cat, but gasped at the creature beside his left leg. "Meow."

It was some sort of chimera that had the features of a cat, but also the features of a rabbit and a dog. The ears were a blend between cat and rabbit, its hind legs were a blend between rabbit and dog, the tail a blend between cat and rabbit, the torso was clearly cat-like, and on its back with a small pair of curved fins. Its coloring was that of an Egyptian Mau's, right down to the spotted back and striped tail.

For some reason, he didn't feel threatened or intimidated by its presence, not that Shinji could find any reason to be, even if this was a dream.

"Meow!" The creature shrieked as its ears flattened.

A dark shadow loomed over Shinji and the ground. As he looked up, he saw people getting blown into the air by some…some sort of dinosaur flying over them. And as it flew past him, he saw…several more in the air, each one about the size of people or large animals…or as big as the buildings around them.

SLAM! The ground shook and Shinji was forced to turn around to see what was in front of him.

"Oh…" He gasped, seeing a giant…something with eyes and tusks, claws and a carapace that he wasn't certain of, but thought he'd seen somewhere.

"Aaaaaurgh!" The creature shrieked…and then launched a fireball from out its mouth.

GASP! Shinji awoke to the new day, drenched in sweat.

"Ahh…ahh…ahh… What was that?" He wondered, looking down at his left hand, seeing the metal bead clutched in it. "What were those creatures? Where was I?"

-x-

The atoll, despite being adrift in the ocean water, was quite stable and not as cluttered with modern-day debris as it was initially believed to be. The outer edges were covered in old building debris, but the inner area was covered in rock and dirt.

Fuyutsuki, walking with Hiroko towards the inner area, stopped for a moment and looked down at his feet. Something was sticking out near his left shoe. He reached down and grabbed it, pulling as hard as he could…and it came out like a small rock that had been shook loose from the rest of its foundation. Bringing it up to his face, he examined its shape and appearance. It was brownish and rusted, shaped like a coma…and quite mesmerizing.

"Interesting," he uttered.

"What is?" Hiroko asked him.

"This thing I found," he showed her.

"It's beautiful."

"Did you find one, too?" One of the crewmen asked them as he came over, carrying a small container with him.

"Huh?" Fuyutsuki and Hiroko went, noticing that the container had almost twenty of those objects in it.

"Do you know what they are?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"No, but…these things are laid out all over the inner parts of the atoll," he explained. "It's as though they were…deliberately left here to be found by someone."

Fuyutsuki looked at the object he found and wondered why something like these would be left for someone else to find. It wasn't as though anyone expected them to be here. Even he didn't expect himself to be here.

"Hey!" Someone shouted. "Over here! We found something!"

Everyone ran to the the center of the atoll where the majority of the crew was…and they found something buried in the ground. It was…some sort of pillar, half-buried in the rubble.

"Let's dig it out," the captain ordered.

To be continued…

A/N: I wouldn't expect much from the next Angel that will be seen. Sometimes, the enemy of the enemy…is just another enemy for someone else, if you know what I mean. Until the next chapter, everyone. See ya.


	4. Feast of Defeat

Creation began on 05-15-19

Creation ended on 09-22-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past: Feast of Defeat

A/N: How many of you can tell what it means from the title alone?

It was an upsetting to wake up to the new day and hear the alert of a new Angel appearing near the ruins of the Kii Peninsula…and the orders for Eva Units-01 and 02 to intercept the target since the damages caused to Tokyo-3 by the Fifth Angel were still being repaired.

"Stay back and watch how a pro handles things, Third," Asuka told Shinji as they showed up at the ruins, just in time to watch the Seventh Angel surface from the ocean, having some resemblance to the Third Angel, only less bony protrusions were present and it was a little bigger.

"No, we don't know what this Angel can do," Shinji responded, noticing that the Angel possessed two cores on its body. _Two cores?_

But Asuka, wanting to prove her superiority due to being unable to at sea with the Sixth Angel that fell before a mysterious target, took her glaive and charged towards the Angel.

"Haaah!" She yelled as she swung it down atop the Angel's body, cutting it in half. "Take that!"

The two halves of the Angel fell to their respective sides in front of Unit-02, showing signs of inactivity to both the pilots and NERV personnel.

"Well, I'll be damned," said Shinji, a little surprised by Asuka's boldness, "but you didn't take out the cores. This Angel has two of them."

"It doesn't matter," Asuka responded. "A kill should be clean and elegant. No haste makes waste."

Suddenly, the two halves vibrated…and the outer skin shed off to reveal two different hides of orange and blue colorations. Two new Angels appeared, each with a core of its own, about the size of an Eva and resembling the one that had been cut in half by Unit-02.

"What?!" Asuka gasped, facing the orange version.

-x-

Smash! The phone in Misato's right hand was reduced to bits due to her crushing it in fury.

"Oh, that's a load of bull right there!" She fumed, not expecting the Angel to do something like this.

"Uh, Captain Katsuragi," went Shigeru to her, looking at his monitor and seeing something that bothered him, "we got a new target approaching the Kii Peninsula!"

"Another Angel?" She asked.

"It's not registering as an Angel…and worse. Multiple targets!"

"How many?"

"Ten."

This disturbed the personnel of Central Dogma; they barely had time to prepare for one Angel, and now they had one that was split into two…and ten more targets that didn't seem to be Angels.

"ETA…sixty seconds," Shigeru revealed.

"Shinji, Asuka, you have more targets approaching your location," Misato informed the pilots on the intercom. "Get ready!"

"What the Hell are those things?!" Asuka's voice went, and the whole of Central Dogma saw through the Evas' visual systems a pack of flying, reddish, bat-winged dragon creatures that looked between fifteen-twenty meters in height with a wingspan of sixteen-eighteen meters on both side.

"My God," they heard Shinji say.

-x-

Raising up his Pallet Rifle, Shinji prepared for an assault by these…winged demons.

"Alright!" Asuka yelled, raising up her glaive. "You want a piece of me?!"

Shinji didn't expect these creatures to answer her. And he didn't expect them to do the next thing he saw when they came with attacking distance, closing the gap between themselves and the Angel.

"What in the world is going on here?" He wondered aloud.

These strange creatures flew around the split Angel, five of them attacking both halves, either clawing at their bodies with their feet…or firing strange light from their heads. And then…one or three of them flew at their cores…and started clawing at them with their feet.

"They're attacking the Angel," went Asuka. "Are these things friendlies?"

Based on the dream he had where he saw one of these creatures, Shinji didn't believe that these things were actually out to help NERV. And not when he saw the next nightmarish action they took out on the Angel's halves.

"They're not allies at all," he uttered in revelation. "They're just hungry."

-x-

Central Dogma couldn't believe the horrid sight they were witnessing in front of them. Whatever these creatures were…they were eating at the flesh of the Angel halves.

"What…what's the status of the Angel's AT-Field?" Misato questioned.

"It's…it's not affecting these things," Hyuga answered. "It's active, but it's not protecting the two halves from them."

The scariest part of the creatures eating at the halves by far…was how each of the ten seemed to get larger with each bite of Angel mass they ingested. Some of the personnel, including Maya and Ritsuko, could've sworn that three of them had grown to almost twenty-five meters.

Shatter! The Angel's two cores cracked and shattered, killing the Angel and reducing what was left of its two halves to a small hill of flesh that disappeared in less than ten seconds as the creatures consumed what was left.

"Aaaaaaurgh!" They shrieked, taking flight and left after devouring the Angel.

Despite it being a type of victory against the Angel, it was more like a defeat because NERV didn't defeat it themselves; all they did was cut it in half. The real victors…were an unexpected outsider bunch…that feasted on the enemy. A feast…of defeat.

-x-

"Strange," said Fuyutsuki as the research team had dug around the strange mural they had found on the atoll, standing in front of it.

"What is strange?" Another man asked him as he took pictures of the writing on the mural.

"This mural seems like it should be…representing a burial mound somewhere…but this thing seems more like it represents…a preserve of sorts."

He then placed his right hand on the mural…and his eyes widened.

 _It's…pulsing?_ He thought; the second he put his hand on the mural, it felt warm to the touch…and like there was a heartbeat in it. _What is going on here?_

To be continued…

A/N: This is the second time NERV got one-upped by something else unexpected against an Angel. But this was the first time an Angel got devoured by a foe that had other goals in mind rather what regular people aim towards.


	5. Get to work

Creation began on 10-01-19

Creation ended on 03-31-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past: Get to work

It had rested long enough and needed to do its duty that it was unable to do thousands of years ago. Its previous awakening was rather premature, but it was to stop a threat to its resting period that was needed to adjust to the current state of the world. But now…now, it was time to return to the world and serve the will of the lost civilization that made it with the hopes of eliminating the threat that they were partially responsible for unleashing on the world when they were dealing with a previous threat. Even if it was all that was left of the ancient protectors against the original protectors that became torturers, it would carry out its mission, regardless of the dangers presented…to ensure a future free from the shadows of the past's evil.

-x-

"What's going on here?!" Fuyutsuki heard one of the men yell as the atoll started shaking, moments after the mural…just fragmented into pieces and fell into a pile.

"The water!" Hiroko screamed. "Run to the water!"

He climbed out of the hole the mural had been in and ran towards the edge of the atoll. Jumping into the ocean water along with dozens of others that were running, Fuyutsuki swam back to the boat whilst the atoll started crumbling.

"What in the name of creation is going on here?!" One of the other men gasped.

Hiroko, also in the water, made it to the boat first and climbed out, throwing over life preservers and ropes so that the others could get back on.

The atoll sank into the water, leaving bits and pieces of debris and tools floating around.

Thud! The boat moved for a moment as something moved underneath it.

-x-

"…The atoll just disappeared?" Ritsuko questioned Fuyutsuki, two days after he returned from his time at sea.

"It made no sense," he told her, looking at his notes salvaged from the atoll. "What we found on the atoll…was nothing like what was seen before."

"Some of us think your atoll was what defeated the Sixth Angel. What we can't understand is how, though."

"An Angel defeated by an atoll? That's too crazy to believe."

"What we saw happen to the Seventh Angel was just as crazy. Instead of being dispatched by the Evas, it was… It was eaten up by a bunch of strange, flying creatures."

"Strange, flying creatures?"

"Twenty of them, ravenous. They were like demons. They had scales and teeth and could shoot light from their heads."

Fuyutsuki then had to go confirm something with Hiroko, leaving the Geo-Front.

-x-

"…How can they charge so much for fish?" Hiroko asked as she looked at the price tags on several fish selections in the local market.

"We eat more fish than beef, I'm told," she heard a young man say to her as he walked by with a shopping basket full of packaged beef pieces and small tuna. "The tuna's cheapest here."

"Thank you, sir," she told him. "You shop here often?"

"Yes. My guardian's often at work, so she can't shop all the time. Plus, she can't cook to save her own life."

"You cook for who you live with?"

"Better me than eating instant."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. Hey, that's an unusual trinket you have there."

Looking down at the magatama-shaped bead wrapped around his left hand, the young man responded, "Uh, thank you. I found it a while ago. It took me a little time to clean it, though. It was covered in dirt and rust."

Hiroko then suggested, "You should add some beads to it. It looks like it could use some prayer beads, give it a sense of companionship instead of being alone."

"Thank you."

Then, Hiroko noticed something else about the bead that she didn't notice earlier, but it resembled the beads that she and Fuyutsuki found on the atoll. The boy then left the store after purchasing his items, leaving Hiroko to wonder whether or not to tell Fuyutsuki about the bead. She then reached into her purse and pulled out the bead she had taken from the atoll, seeing the resemblance it had to the other bead.

 _Could they be the same?_ She wondered.

-x-

"…So, what if the next Angel appears and those things decide to show up again and turn it into an all-you-can-eat buffet?" Asuka questioned Misato as they, Shinji and Pen-Pen were eating dinner that night.

"We're working on that possibility," Misato told her, picking up her beer can.

"I think if it comes to that, those creatures are equally as dangerous as the Angels are, but they chose to go after the Angel instead of the Evas," went Shinji as he refilled his bowl with rice and fried broccoli. "Why would they choose to eat the Angel…and ignore the Evas?"

That's something even Misato wanted to know. If those creatures weren't Angels, then it was likely they didn't see the Evas as a threat…or just didn't see the Evas as an adequate food source, meaning the Angels, or at least the more-organic-looking ones, were a greater target to feed off of than the cybernetic Evas. And if those creatures could grow bigger just from eating enough of the Angels' hide, then they could be just as big as the Evas or Angels themselves. Who knows how dangerous they could be against the Angels if they were out looking to eat them? This would likely make the Angels more hostile towards them than with humanity.

Ding! The doorbell rang, catching their attention.

"Were you expecting someone over and forgot, Misato?" Shinji asked the woman.

"No," she answered him, "I didn't invite anyone over."

Shinji then got up and went to answer the door.

"Probably Kaji looking to see me," Asuka suggested.

"You wish it was him," Misato told her. _Please, don't let it be him._

"Uh, Misato," they heard Shinji in the hall, "Mr. Fuyutsuki's here."

"Huh?!" Misato and Asuka gasped; they didn't expect to know that the sub-commander of NERV was here.

-x-

Eating what bits of whatever they could find in the wilderness, the twenty creatures that had attacked and devoured the Seventh Angel had managed to grow larger until each was at varying heights of between either thirty-five or forty meters.

"Rrrraaurgh!" They shrieked at the night sky, satisfied with their current fullness…until they needed to eat again.

-x-

This was disturbing to have Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and his friend over, and part of the reason they just showed up unannounced was because the elderly man's friend, Hiroko, the same woman that Shinji had met at the market, wanted to see his magatama bead again.

"You two came here just to see that lousy bead he found?" Asuka questioned, finding it pathetic that anyone would take interest in some stupid trinket like that.

Hiroko, who was sitting in the living room where they currently were, reached into her purse and pulled out her bead.

"We found a dozen of these beads on the atoll we were investigating," she explained, and Shinji saw that it was identical to his.

"Maybe the thing we saw attack the Sixth Angel was the atoll you were investigating," he suggested to them.

"Yeah, it's likely so," Fuyutsuki agreed with him. "I only brought ten of them back to NERV for research purposes."

"What were you able to discover?" Misato asked him.

"They're made of a metal that doesn't exist on the periodic table."

"A new kind of metal?" Shinji questioned.

"The comma shape may have some relation to medieval Japan. Unfortunately, the metal it's made of is another mystery. They seem to have some connection with a tablet we found on the atoll that shattered when the atoll did."

Hiroko then took out a few pictures of the tablet and a copy of the translated characters that were inscribed upon it before shattering.

"You were able to translate what was written on that thing?" Asuka asked them.

"Yeah," Hiroko answered her. "Since there were characters to compare the runes to, it wasn't that difficult. It's confusing, however. Even though it was translated, we still don't understand what it means."

Misato looked at the translation and read it to herself.

"' _The last hope, Gamera. We bestow him to the cradle of time.'_ "

Shinji peeked at the translation and uttered, " _'May he awaken with Gyaos, the shadow of evil.'_ "

"That's all that was written?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah," Fuyutsuki answered. "We don't really understand it."

"It sounds like a prophecy," Shinji suggested.

"Do you really believe in prophecies?" Hiroko asked him.

"Not unless they're positive. Otherwise, why believe that things, such as fate and salvation, are written in stone."

"Sounds like you're not a big believer in such concepts. What do your parents think?"

Shinji sighed and expressed, "My parents are dead, ma'am."

"That's rough."

"Technically, my father is still breathing, but due to the fact that he's always at work and we don't have a relationship, for all intents and purposes, he might as well be dead."

"Oh… Kozo here didn't mention to me that Gendo Ikari was your father. Honestly, I don't see any resemblance between you two. I mean, you look like a gentle, sensitive fellow, and your father is…well, anything but a man that should talk to someone about himself instead of keeping to himself."

"Yeah, it'd be nice if he actually spoke about himself."

"Why does it seem like your father isn't a good person?" Asuka asked, curious.

"He never has anything nice to say," Fuyutsuki admitted, "about anyone or anything."

The redhead then looked at Shinji and merely shrugged. In her mind right now, it sucked to be him if his own father was not a good person, whether he was the leader of NERV or not.

"Gamera, Gyaos," she sighed, returning to the translated tablet inscriptions. "Who or what are Gamera and Gyaos? The last hope? The shadow of evil? It all sounds farfetched. And those beads you found? Maybe they're made of orihalcum or something."

"What? Ori…" Hiroko questioned, confused by what she said.

"Orihalcum," Asuka repeated.

"You actually believe in that phony, Atlantis belief?" Misato asked her.

"No, I found that word in a fiction novel that Shinji here reads."

"That's my business, Asuka," Shinji defended himself.

"That's a possibility," Fuyutsuki suggested. "Such a metal wouldn't exist on the periodic table, but Atlantis… The beads coming from there would be impossible."

"Why is that?" Shinji asked him. "People keep insisting that the fabled continent sank into the ocean eons ago."

"It sank in the Atlantic Ocean, hence its name Atlantis," Misato stated. "Their mysterious atoll was found in the Pacific Ocean, where we were when the Sixth Angel attacked."

"Yeah…"

"Hold on a minute," went Hiroko, putting down the photos of the tablet, "now, if such a place known as Atlantis truly existed, or even better, the lost continent of Mu, then who's to say that the story could've spread across the world, in various versions? Maybe they are made of orihalcum. Maybe this ancient civilization that made the beads was the background source of the myths that are Atlantis and Mu."

"You mean to suggest that the atoll we found, the very same one that attacked and defeated an Angel that attacked the fleet we were with…might've been related to some ancient race of people?" Asuka questioned. "That someone went and made it? Made an atoll, just like that?"

"Maybe," Shinji suspected. "How else do you explain how something covered in debris…was able to kill an Angel at sea? Or better yet, how a flock of strange creatures were able to kill an Angel you split in half…and get bigger with every bite they took of it?"

"Strange creatures taking a bite out of another creature?"

"They looked like demonic bats on a feeding frenzy," Misato stated.

"Demonic bats… Did they have scales and teeth, make a terrible screeching sound?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I think those are the same creature I saw on an island when I was attacked by them."

-x-

Now rid of the debris that covered its body, Gamera rose from the ocean depths, ready to fulfill his duty and rid the world of his ancient enemy, the revived Gyaos, before they could pick up where they left off and destroy all life on the planet.

To be continued…

A/N: There is more to come in the future.


End file.
